iPod Photo 60gb - 3 Questions

[jjwax]

Hi, just a few questions I haven't seen an answer for yet (hopefully I've looked hard enough!). I have a new 60gb iPod Photo, and I use iTunes for Windows:

1. When using the iPod, is it somehow possible to omit Books/Spoken Word genre items from the "Shuffle Songs" feature? I love to shuffle around, but find it annoying to some across some random chapter of a book I've saved on the iPod and then have to press a button to move on to the next shuffle selection in order to avoid it. I'd love for the "Shuffle Songs" feature to select only from my MUSIC files. Anybody have a suggestion for this?

2. Is there a way to make my smart playlist for favorite songs (the ones I've designated with 5 stars) always play randomly on the iPod, even if I don't have "Shuffle" turned on in my "Settings" folder? I'd like to be able to play albums I select in sequence, thus don't want to have "Shuffle" turned on in any way, but I'd love to have my favorite songs from my playlist always play randomly. Any help on this would also be greatly appreciated.

3. Last, I have a very nice protective iSkin covering on my iPod, but this obviously precludes me from using the dock connector that is available for the iPod Photo. I'd still like to able to have the ability to have a nice clean line out jack and s-video jack, but don't want to always take the iSkin off in order to make it fit. Is there an aftermarket connector that someone makes that either allows for the added width of the iSkin or perhaps has a cable to connect into the iPod and then to some type of box connected to that with the line out jacks?

Any help on the above would be most appreciated. Thanks again.

[TheSilentDawn]

1. Yes there is. Create a smart playlist by going File/Smart Playlist. In the first column select: Kind. The middle column select: does not contain or is not. In the final column pick whatever genres you would like to exclude. When you have this done, click the plus sign and repeat this as many times you need to. Now go to the Shuffle in the side menu. Go to the Source menu on the left side and select your new playlist.

2. I haven't found a way to do this. I have a smart playlist like that but I have it set up a little differently. I have it set to only contain 3 hours worth of songs. THis way whenever I sync my iPod, I get a fresh set of songs. Not a very good solution, but it's the best I've found so far.

3. Take a look around the reviews section here at iLounge. They have quite a few different models that could work for you that I have seen.

Welcome to the lounge.

[jjwax]

Thanks a lot TheSilentDawn. I will follow your advice. Too bad about the inability to random shuffle the smart playlists, even when shuffle is turned off in the settings menu. I will look at some of the reviews for dock connectors that allow for a skin, probably haven't done that enough yet. I will also make the playlist that excludes the genres I don't want...however, I guess I'm still wondering if there's any way to make the standard "Shuffle Songs" command (the one that's accessible from the top menu) exclude books? I'm guessing not.

Again, thanks a lot. Really appreciate your time and advice.